Samurai William

Some time ago I posted in this forum a comment about the book/movie,
Shogun. I recalled that on one of my trips to Japan, a hill, (I
believe it was in Kyushu.), was pointed out to me as being Pilot
Hill, named after Anjin-San. At that time it was my distinct
impression that the English pilot in Shogun was based on fact.
Someone, I do not recall who, said they thought it was strictly
fiction.

I finally was able to get my hands on "Samurai William" a history
book by Giles Milton. This book left no doubt that not only did Anjin-
San exist as a real person, but that James Clavell covered the
important events of William Adams experience with remarkable accuracy.

Should any of you not have read it, I highly recommend doing so, as
it does a wonderfull job of discussing events during many years of
Tokunaga Ieyasu's "rein" (It goes beyond that into the rein of
Ieyasu's son Hidetada, but I haven't finished the book yet so do not
know how far it extends.

The number of events of historical accuracy are many and so far I
have only found two significant departures from history.

Events of historical accuracy include:

1. Adam's was an English "pilot" (navigator) on board a Dutch Ship.
2. He was indeed made Samurai and Hatamoto, not just the first
foreigner to be so honored, but the first person, not trained in "the
way of the Sword" to be so honored.
3. Adams early enemy was indeed a specific Jesuit priest whose
personality was virtually identical to that displayed by the movie
Jesuit. This priest did indeed act as interpreter in Adam's first
meeting with the Shogun, and Adam's did tell Ieyasu that the Priest
was his enemy. What was less clear in the movie was that Adam's
eventually learned the Japanese languge well enough that he replaced
the jesuit as Ieyasu's interpreter.

There are numerous other instances of historical accuracy but let me
now turn to two inaccuracies.

1. There was apparently no Lady Mariko. Adams did marry a Japanese
woman, (making him a bigamist as he had a wife and daughter in
England.) He had two children with his Japanese wife. But his wife
was not of a noble family, although her father did have a position
of some importance.
2. Ieyasu did not have Anjin-San's ships destroyed to keep him in
Japan. To the contrary he had Adam's build two ships, one an 80 ton
vessel and the other a 120 ton vessel.

It is true that Adam's was refused persmission to leave Japan for 15
years, but Ieyasu eventually relented and gave permission for him to
leave. This was done shortly after the first English ship arrived in
Japan. Adam's was prepared to return home on the ship, but quickly
found the Captain to be such a "jerk" that he decided he prefered to
stay in Japan to spending a year aboard a ship with the idiot.

This Captain was immediately a odds with Adam's. Although he had no
experience what ever in Japan he continually disregarded Adam's
advice and made a great deal of trouble for himself and his success
in so doing.

Much more recently history repeated when I was "presented" with a
boss who also had no exprerience what so ever in foreign countries,
(at that time I had 10 years experience), and he also failed to
follow my advice, eventually losing a lot of international business.

There are also interesting tidbits about the real Anjin-San's
experience not covered in the book or movie. Adam's influence with
the Shogun may well have played a role in the Shogun's eventual
decision to ban Christian's from Japan. This apparently applied
mostly to Roman Catholics who were indeed enemy to England.

This in turn led to the last major war when Osaka Castle, under
Hideyori, became a refuge for disaffected Christians. That battle
pitted 180,000 troops under Ieyasu against Hideyori and 120,000
troops, with the added benefit of the impregnable Osaka castle.
Ieyasu won.

I am finding Samurai William to be an excellent and facinating book
and recommend it to all who are interested in that period of Japanese
history. I have read quite a bit about Tokunaga Shogun, but only in
this book have I actually found a physical description of the man.
(In his later years he became too fat to mount a horse).

Bud Brann wrote:

> Some time ago I posted in this forum a comment about the book/movie,
> Shogun. I recalled that on one of my trips to Japan, a hill, (I
> believe it was in Kyushu.), was pointed out to me as being Pilot
> Hill, named after Anjin-San. At that time it was my distinct
> impression that the English pilot in Shogun was based on fact.
> Someone, I do not recall who, said they thought it was strictly
> fiction.
>

Someone was an idjit.

>
> I finally was able to get my hands on "Samurai William" a history
> book by Giles Milton. This book left no doubt that not only did Anjin-
> San exist as a real person, but that James Clavell covered the
> important events of William Adams experience with remarkable accuracy.
>

Ummm.... yeah. It's called research.

>
> Should any of you not have read it, I highly recommend doing so, as
> it does a wonderfull job of discussing events during many years of
> Tokunaga Ieyasu's "rein" (It goes beyond that into the rein of
> Ieyasu's son Hidetada, but I haven't finished the book yet so do not
> know how far it extends.
>

reign

>
> The number of events of historical accuracy are many and so far I
> have only found two significant departures from history.
>

Actually, there are piles of them -- mostly in the interests of making a novel
that would be marketable and appeal in the West. See below for the biggest (and
one of the ones that explain much as to why the Japanese were ambivalent about
the book.

> 3. Adams early enemy was indeed a specific Jesuit priest whose
> personality was virtually identical to that displayed by the movie
> Jesuit. This priest did indeed act as interpreter in Adam's first
> meeting with the Shogun, and Adam's did tell Ieyasu that the Priest
> was his enemy. What was less clear in the movie was that Adam's
> eventually learned the Japanese languge well enough that he replaced
> the jesuit as Ieyasu's interpreter.
>

Hardly. Joao Rodriguez was a key interpreter -- and quite possibly the best
foreign speaker of Japanese in this time frame -- but he was by no means the
only one. There were, by the early 1620s, many Japanese who had had training at
one of the Jesuit seminaries but left them, and any of them could have done
interpretation -- as well as any number of non-seminary-trained samurai who'd
been educated in the Portuguese and Spanish languages just for that purpose (as
would later happen to those who were taught Dutch).

>
> There are numerous other instances of historical accuracy but let me
> now turn to two inaccuracies.
>
> 1. There was apparently no Lady Mariko.

Yes, there was. An incredibly famous woman who is still highly regarded in
Japanese historical circles. Her name was Hosokawa Gracia, the Christian
daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide (Akechi Jinsai in the book, assassin of the
dictator Goroda, the novel's version of Oda Nobunaga), wife of Hosokawa Tadaoki
(Buntaro), and daughter-in-law of Hosokawa Fujitaka (Hiromatsu).

She was held hostage by Ishida Mitsunari (Ishido) in his castle, and committed
suicide and burned her home down (with her in it) to prevent Ishida from being
able to hold her prisoner to keep her husband from acting.

That such a high-born lady would have had an affair with a foreigner like
"Anjin" was an affront to Japanese sensibilities of propriety. It is the
greatest historical inaccuracy -- or rather, the most obvious fiction created --
in the book.

> Adam's influence with
> the Shogun may well have played a role in the Shogun's eventual
> decision to ban Christian's from Japan. This apparently applied
> mostly to Roman Catholics who were indeed enemy to England.
>

Hardly. There was much more to it than the piddling influence Adams was able to
create. Most critical, possibly, was the San Felipe Incident, and as likely the
personality of Coelho the head of the Jesuit Mission in Japan, who liked to show
off Portugal's military might to impress the Japanese. The ultimate end was the
fact that the Catholics wouldn't lend the shogunate ships to attack Shimabara
and the Christians holed up in there; neither would the British. The Dutch,
however, more interested in trade than in souls, gave the bakufu whatever they
needed, thus securing their position as "foreigners we can work with."

>
> This in turn led to the last major war when Osaka Castle, under
> Hideyori, became a refuge for disaffected Christians.

You're conflating Shimabara and Osaka. Different campaigns.


Tony

Dude!
Are you suggesting there was an affair between Hosokawa
Gracia and Will Adams!?! Would love to hear more about that...
-t

tom helm wrote:

> Dude!
> Are you suggesting there was an affair between Hosokawa
> Gracia and Will Adams!?! Would love to hear more about that...

No, that's what *Clavell* did.

Tony

Thanks Tony,
for a minute I thought you had lost it...
-t

>
>
> From: "Bud Brann" <cebrann@...>
>
>I finally was able to get my hands on "Samurai William" a history
>book by Giles Milton. This book left no doubt that not only did Anjin-
>San exist as a real person, but that James Clavell covered the
>important events of William Adams experience with remarkable accuracy.
>
>

"The Needle Watcher" by Richard Blaker is OK if a bit dated, reprinted
by Tuttle back in the 70's. I'll have to check out the Milton book.

>Tokunaga Ieyasu's "rein"
>

Are you talking about the horse riding thingy here ;)

Jim Eckman

Okay, I held my comments until I finished the book.

Observation #1: Milton obviously did an excellent job
doing the research on the letters, accounts, etc., of
the European travelers who made it to Japan. What is
equally obvious is that he didn't do nearly as much
research about Japan itself, especially the background
of what was going on in the country during the time
Adams, et al were there. Several places he obviously
takes what was written in the letters by Europeans as
the facts about Japanese politics of the time, when
really they were not accurate at all--kind of like me
trying to describe the politics of South Korea, in
which I live, but don't speak the language, etc.

Observation #2: MUST he refer to things as if he's a
16th century European himself? I thought I was going
to puke if I read "scimitar" describing a katana one
more time. "Scimitar"? We couldn't just say "sword"?
It didn't have enough "period" flavor, I suppose. And
how hard would it have been to use the JAPANESE names
(since, in actuality, they were their names) for
Japanese historical figures, and not the stupid "King
Foyne", "Matinga", etc.? Beyond the fact that I have
no idea how phonetically challenged the English must
have been at this time for them to come up with those,
it just HURT reading that. Like when people pronounce
my favorite restaurant in Sierra Vista, AZ, which is
Tanuki, as "Ta NOOOO ki". AARRGH.

Okay, enough of that--overall I thought it was very
informative, and fairly well done except for my petty
gripes above. Worth reading as long as one understands
not to take what Milton writes as a history of Japan
during that time, but a history of the Europeans in
Japan, told COMPLETELY through their eyes.


Nate

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